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Today, my first guest post was published on PTMoney.com. Philip “PT” Taylor started blogging about personal finance in 2007. His blog and financial pursuits led him to found FinCon (“A peer conference for the financial blogging community”). Now, his website attracts 350,000 pageviews per month.

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Eating out is easy on the mind and awful on the budget. There’s no argument here – you can save more by eating in. The reality is that Americans eat out a lot and the statistics are staggering. The National Restaurant Association suggests that Americans spent $632 billion last year (2012) at restaurants. With that much at stake, companies have quickly made a science out of it.

We spend about $1.7 billion per day eating out, which equates to $2,505 per household per year. That’s money that could otherwise be going to meals at home and a stronger retirement fund for your future, family.

The Science Behind Perception

For 99 cents, you can purchase a bean burrito at Taco Bell. The iconic logo, waxy paper, and drive-thru lane all connote a certain class and quality. Many question the standards, while others exult the affordability. But when you go out to eat at a fine restaurant, you’re looking for something better. Afterall, that’s what you’re paying for, right?

Science has perfected three key ingredients to make you spend more and with greater frequency: music, colors, and menu. By availing yourself of this knowledge you can become a more critical patron and save hundreds – possibly thousands – each year.

Sights, Sounds Make You Stay

Upon walking into your favorite restaurant you’ll normally find a music track that follows you throughout the room. From dark wood and leather upholstery to brightly lit metals, the decorative touch says a lot about what you’ll spend. By creating a safe, fun, relaxing environment, restaurants invite us to to stay and spend.

Time spent in the restaurant was the most powerful predictor of money spent in the restaurant (Caldwell & Hibbert, 2002).

Restaurants are intentional with everything they do. Knowing their audience is key, because if the patrons identify with the music playing, they’re likely to stay longer.

Even your menu choices may be influenced by the music and ambiance. French music may play gently in the background, and it may influence a decision to purchase French wine.

French music led to French wines outselling German ones, whereas German music led to the opposite effect on sales of French wine (North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1999).

Colors Make You Feel

Today, you can find salmon with color added. The Kool-Aid, sodas, and sport drinks all fizz and pop with a different fluorescent color. Psychologically, we are wired to interpret these colors as indicators of health and vibrancy. These shades have a powerful effect on our perceptions of taste.

Color had a significant influence on the identification of…flavors (Stillman, 1993).

Seeing vibrant colors in food can enhance flavor identification and perceived satisfaction of the product being offered. Alone, this quite powerful. But restaurants also enhance and manipulate your sense of taste by the color of cups, bowls, and accessories.

…beverages were ranked as sweeter when consumed out of cream-colored cups. Drink unsweetened hot chocolate from an orange mug, serve fajitas on a red plate… (Prevention).

Menu Pricing, Formatting Make You Pay

Crafting a menu is key. There are strategies that the restaurant industry employ to aid your psychological mindset and encourage greater spending.

When we are reminded of the dollar cost of menu items, spending can be affected. There’s a quick fix to alleviate the burden of spending: take these symbols off the menu!

…results did show a significant reduction in spending when formats with monetary cues such as the word “dollars” or the symbol “$” were used (Yang, Kimes, & Sessarego, 2008).

99 cent items are commonplace at larger fast-food changes, and there’s a powerful psychological component to creating a gap between 99 cents and regularly-priced meals.

A fast-food operator may hold prices below $1.00 for as long as possible, and then jump to $1.25 or higher…because there is less purchase resistance once the dollar barrier has been jumped (Kreul, 1982).

This effectively creates a dichotomous menu of decisions for the patron: Group A (less expensive) versus Group B (more expensive). For finer restaurants, Group A is kept higher than average and Group B is kept lower than average. This makes spending more seem like a better value.

There’s a reason that chunks of text may be next to a short dish title. Including detailed descriptions of the menu offerings can assuage spending concerns.

…menu descriptions have the potential to increase revenue while also increasing the value perception (Shoemaker, Dawson, & Johnson, 2005).

Conclusion

Restaurants are clearly here to stay. Americans have voted with their capitalistic dollar in powerful agreement. The fact remains that eating out is a social past-time and great way to hang out with friends, co-workers, and lovers. By learning about the tricks restaurants use, you can at least become a critical consumer and save money along the way.

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My schedule is taxing; at least, during the school year. This summer I am working and volunteering to make use of my time. In the spare hours, I’m moonlighting as a medical participant for fun and profit.

Finding the Right Studies

As a graduate student in psychological sciences, I was aware of the ever present research studies at my university. When I first considered participating, I thought about needles, genetic testing, and doses of untested medications. While some participation opportunities focus on this more invasive, dangerous region of research to gain FDA acceptance, another batch aims to look at physical health, mental functioning, and performance. This is the sweet spot. Over the course of two weeks, I’ll make an extra $200 by participating in two studies about gambling behaviors and testing my audio-visual abilities – no smallpox required.

This isn’t the sweet spot.

Where to Volunteer

Universities and research institutions are constantly looking for “volunteers” that will be compensated for their “time.” The trick is finding studies that are applicable to you and fit into your schedule. Clinical research opportunities request some basic criteria (i.e., age, sex, race, etc.) and then specify what will be studied. With my busy schedule, medical participation for compensation is the perfect extra income. I don’t need to have any time commitments that overlap schedules and researchers are generally flexible. By gaining access to medical participation boards, you can begin to search for research. At my local university, there are a variety of different sites with opportunities. Dentistry, psychiatry, medical, and psychology all have public research wings for participants.

The largest, nationwide database can be accessed at ClinicalTrials.gov. The website contains 146,871 studies in 50 states and 184 countries.

The Student Body

The strangest part: I’m not alone. More and more students are turning to medical participation – for better and for worse – to pay their student loans and credit card debt. One student, Ken Ilgunas, made $391 by participating in MRI studies while a graduate student at Duke University. While contributing to science and making a buck is a generally a win-win, consider the risks involved before signing away your mental or physical health.

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Surprisingly, credit card usage dropped from 42 to 35 percent among college students from 2010 to 2012. While this may signal more discerning students for credit card offers and tightening budgets, the reduction may have resulted from the CARD Act’s provisions regarding the application of new credit.

Before 2009, anyone over 18 could apply for a new credit card with little concern. Applicants were not usually asked to verify their current income, either. This led to a tragic susceptibility for wild spending and damaged credit. Nowadays, 18 to 21-year-olds must apply for credit with a verified income or co-signed with a parent.

When I was 19, I applied for my first credit card. I spent too much, churned cards, and wasted my time researching far too much about them. But, in establishing good credit, it has been a success. Sitting at around 767, I am in the highest bracket for lending. While my goal is to reign in my debt for all accounts, the strong credit score has eased my ability to receive credit cards, car loans, and student loans. In the end, I wonder how credit scores will be affected by this swing away from credit cards and reduced accessibility 18-21.

Maybe this reduction will prevent early credit card debt and uncontrolled spending. Maybe it will reduce credit scores and make loans more expensive and inaccessible down the road. Either way, we may be seeing a changing demographic for who traditionally uses credit cards.